ALBUM REVIEW: Anthropocene – Broken Vow

The planet’s in the shitter. Environmental collapse, ecological disasters, climate change; it’s a bleak time to be human. As awful as that is, it’s also an endless wellspring of inspiration for bands, from the days of EARTH CRISIS all the way through to newer bands carrying that torch. Metallic hardcore outfit BROKEN VOW tackle all these themes on their debut album, the aptly-named Anthropocene, with as much subtlety as they can muster – none. 

Taking cues from the aforementioned EARTH CRISIS and other 90s bands like STRAIN, their early output was punky hardcore in a similar vein, but there was still an undercurrent of something heavier, an area they’ve leaned more into over the last couple of years, and especially so with Anthropocene. Instrumentally they very much find themselves in the world of metallic hardcore, churning and chugging riffs, while the punky snarl to the vocals still harkens back to those influences. 

Burning Your Throne opens with a squeal of feedback, and the breakdown 90 seconds in is pure ignorance, closing the song out with a baseball bat. Kingdom Dies and Evil Armies keep up the fury, the former a fist-swinging pit anthem, while the latter hurls in some blasts for good measure. Lead single 1.5 refers to the statistic that we lose 1.5% of the natural world to development ever year, a terrifying fact that they make even scarier with chunky riffs and barrel-chested vocal delivery that dares us to continue squandering the bounty of the earth. 

At no point are BROKEN VOW anything less than screaming bloody murder at the destruction we visit on the planet, approaching it from a deeply human view from a generation that’s never known environmental peace, only broken promises from leaders on looking after the world. It’s borne out across every song, but Shift Tactics perhaps represents their response to it best; stop-start chugs and howls of “I will burn your likeness / Everywhere I find it” lead into a roar of “Burning the effigy” that’s felt as much as it is heard. 

Second and final single Reversal drives home the message that if we destroy the planet, we destroy ourselves, offering a simple solution to be more connected to the natural world as it would reawaken some desire to preserve it rather than ruthlessly exploit. The cries of “When will this end?” feel not only angry but desperate, a last ditch attempt at crying out for the planet. 

It all culminates in No More Air, the longest song on the album (though still a taut three minutes), both a rallying cry to people and a eulogy to the planet with more melody than the band have previously employed, but still plenty of bite and a callout to do better. BROKEN VOW carry on the work done by bands like EARTH CRISIS before them, a new torchbearer to call attention to the planetary catastrophe that is climate change and human inaction on it. A visceral, rage-fuelled work that demands we do better, Anthropocene shows BROKEN VOW are only just getting started.

Rating: 8/10

Anthropocene is set for release on September 29th via Triple B Records.

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